Emilie Whalen

The New Orleans Fringe Festival is ready to bring fearless performers to fearless audiences. Now in its fifth year of production, the festival hopes to strengthen relationships between local artists and the community-at-large. For this week's Notes from New Orleans, Sharon Litwin spoke with Fringe's performance coordinator Emilie Whalen about this year's upcoming festivities.

This week on Inside the Arts, we'll celebrate the evolution of a classic local sandwich; journey to what's billed as an arts festival of the wild, weird, fresh and original; delve into a comedic Italian opera; and explore a Russian Ballet.